Schmitz started for Washington on February 3.[141] He was absent from San Francisco until March 6. He did not, however, as had been predicted, return amid popular acclaim. The outcome of the Washington negotiations was not satisfactory to California. There was popular belief that the Mayor’s mission had failed. At the State line Schmitz received the startling word that Ruef was a fugitive from justice; that Sheriff O’Neil had failed to discover the fugitive’s whereabouts and had been disqualified. During the month of his absence from San Francisco, the Mayor was soon to learn, events of tremendous importance to himself and to his administration had occurred.
CHAPTER XI.
Ruef a Fugitive.
Three months[142] after his indictment in the “French Restaurant” extortion cases—three months of continuous fighting to evade the issue—Ruef found his last technical obstruction, as far as the State courts were concerned, swept away, and was forced to enter his plea to the charge contained in the indictment. He pleaded “not guilty.” His trial was set for March 5.
Up to the day before the date fixed for the trial to begin, nothing had come up to indicate further delay. On March 4, however, Ruef’s bondsmen surrendered him into the custody of the Sheriff. Ruef then applied to Superior Judge J. C. B. Hebbard for a writ of habeas corpus. The application was based on the allegation dealt with in a previous chapter, that Grand Juror Wise was ineligible, because he had been drawn as a trial juror within a year before the impanelment of the Grand Jury of which he was a member. On the ground that Wise was ineligible for Grand Jury service, Ruef’s attorneys contended, their client’s restraint was in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments to the Federal Constitution, thereby raising a Federal issue and paving the way for appeal to the Federal courts.
In opposing Ruef’s new move, Hiram W. Johnson,[143] who had been employed to assist the District Attorney in the “graft” prosecution, pointed out that the cases named in the petition were pending in a co-ordinate branch of the Superior Court; that they were set for trial the following day; that the points, including the Federal points, had been made subject of extensive arguments before Hebbard’s colleague, Judge Dunne, and in the course of those arguments every question presented in the proceedings had been passed upon.
Ach, representing Ruef, denied that the Federal question had been presented. Johnson insisted that it had. An unfortunate scene followed.[144] Hebbard showed symptoms of intoxication. Johnson, Langdon and Heney finally refused to participate further in the proceedings and walked out of the courtroom.[145] The withdrawal of the District Attorney and his assistants did not delay Judge Hebbard’s decision. He denied the writ Ruef prayed for, but he allowed an appeal from his order to the Supreme Court of the United States, and admitted Ruef to bail pending that appeal.
One of Ruef’s attorneys filed the writ of error issued by Judge Hebbard with the clerk of the Federal Circuit Court. May 2 was set as the date for the appearance on the writ of error before the United States Supreme Court at Washington.[146]
The Aetna Indemnity Company had furnished Ruef’s bond. This company surrendered Ruef to the Sheriff in the forenoon. In the afternoon it furnished the bail that had been imposed by Judge Hebbard.